Friday, October 28, 2011

Comeback Story

This is what makes us great.  Time to support this company that was determined to rebuild and help this devastated community make it through a terrible time.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/bringing-america-back-wrangler-rebuilds-tornado/story?id=14826097

For other ways to seek out locally produced goods, check out Still Made in USA.com.  There are still lots of options!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Upheaval

Today at work:
  • I lost my boss
  • my team leader became my boss
  • I got a new title:  QA Analyst
  • I got a new team name:  Technology Solutions
Change is good, right?

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Lamb Chair Pad

Last year when I was losing my job I started selling all sorts of things on Ebay.  I sold a lamb rug hooking pattern and Cris sent me this photo recently of the finished chair pad.  It's so darn cute and nice to see it actually being used!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Better

I've spent the last couple of days trying to clean up my craft cave.  I started with this:


Not much room to move around, eh?

Here are the after photos:


Am I done?  Oh no, not yet.  But at least I can walk around the room and much of my stray yarn has found its rightful home.  I have a large Rubbermaid contain full of yarn for upcoming hats, wraps, etc.  I have a lot of knitting to do before my show in December.  My, oh my.

OMG

Do you watch any of the 'Housewives' shows?  I'm trying to clean my craft cave but as usual, am sucked into the Housewives of Beverly Hills show.  I'm positively stunned.  Stunned I say because one them just lathered a raw whole chicken with dish soap to ward off salmonella.  Stunned.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

GLHQ Studio Tour

Yesterday 7 of my Chicken friends and I meandered from home to home, viewing the quilt studios of 6 different members of the GLHQ guild.  It was a fundraiser and while we had hoped for 200 attendees, we managed to garner about 90.  A great first effort for this project and I think that if we do it again, the positive feedback from this year's go-round will help bolster additional ticket sales next time. 

Each studio was unique and I took pictures where I could.  Everyone had great ideas on using their space to maximize quilting enjoyment and several offered up various tips.  Of course, there were lots and lots of quilts and other textile projects to see, too!

These first three are from Elaine's home.  The portrait of the woman was from last week's workshop with Aniko Feher.




This is one of my early rug hooking projects that Cathy had purchased at the guild's holiday bazaar one year:
Cathy is super patriotic with loads of flag related items grouped together.  Her son Nick just returned from his third tour of duty in Afghanistan -- safe and sound, thank goodness.

These are six of Cathy's antique quilts, layered on a table:

The next four photos are from Nancy's home.  Guess why I love the first two so much!!




We had a great time -- the weather was FINALLY nice!!
Carol, Joyce, Sue, Judy, Kathy, Pat, and Debby -- great group of friends.  We switched passengers several times so everyone had a chance to visit.  Pat found out the night before that there was a new quilt shop on our route -- we HAD to stop there.  Michelle opened Fabric Affair a couple of weeks ago so she had limited fabric but most of us made a purchase and welcomed her to the quilting community.

Michelle is a full-service Bernina dealer so I expect that she'll be seeing a lot of business from our group.  I haven't had my machine in for service since I bought it 5 6 years ago -- don't hit me Mary!!!


I bought this fabric:

to make a quilt for Denver, who is now 7 weeks old!!!

Each of us received great prizes given out by Joyce along the way.  I got a packet of Moda fabric from their 1974 line and a bottle of Mary Ellen's Best Press -- woohoo!!!

Our last stop of the day was fellow Chicken member Diane's home.  Her studio is a loft above her family room and it's amazing!  Fabulous lighting, great views, and plenty of space to work.  I'm so jealous!

I love this antique J.P. Coats thread cabinet:



Diane had a giveaway table full of things she uncovered while straightening up her studio.  We all obliged by taking several things home.  I scored a piece of red flannel to use in my Sock Monkey Quilt for Denver.

It was a marvelously relaxing way to spend a Saturday after all the rushing around with my show and business trip lately.  Now I have to get to work cleaning my craft cave.  I'll be sequestered for the rest of the day.  I've taken the 'before' pictures and will share the misery with you once I have the 'after' pictures.  Hope you have a great day!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Traveling Pressing Board

While searching on Amazon for a new quilting book I followed a series of links until I ended up here.  Quilt book author and blogger Laura Nownes shows us how to use empty fabric bolts, fabric, batting, etc. to make a super lightweight pressing board -- I might have to try this one!